required number of days at re-etry

[elle2018]

Hello All.

I got married to an American in 1996 and became a green card holder in 2007 when we moved to the US. We got divorced in 2009 but I stayed in the US, worked, raised my kids (now 22 years old), bought a house and so on. I left the US to return to my home country in March 2018 to help a family member in a health crisis. This will need to go on for maybe another year or so. I just returned back to the US in March 2018 or 2 weeks. I keep reading about abandonment of status if leaving the US for more than one year and that returning to the US is required to keep the green card status. I know that I want to stay in the US for the rest of my life and will probably get citizenship but for now I have the following questions and appreciate any answers:

Does a one or two week visit to the US every 4 to 5 month qualify as "enough" to keep my green card status?

Is there a required number of days that I have to stay in the US, in order to keep my green card?

What are my options to keep my green card with my current status (living outside of the US)?

Thank you all very much

[newacct]

Hello All.

I got married to an American in 1996 and became a green card holder in 2007 when we moved to the US. We got divorced in 2009 but I stayed in the US, worked, raised my kids (now 22 years old), bought a house and so on. I left the US to return to my home country in March 2018 to help a family member in a health crisis. This will need to go on for maybe another year or so. I just returned back to the US in March 2018 or 2 weeks. I keep reading about abandonment of status if leaving the US for more than one year and that returning to the US is required to keep the green card status. I know that I want to stay in the US for the rest of my life and will probably get citizenship but for now I have the following questions and appreciate any answers:

Does a one or two week visit to the US every 4 to 5 month qualify as "enough" to keep my green card status?

Is there a required number of days that I have to stay in the US, in order to keep my green card?

What are my options to keep my green card with my current status (living outside of the US)?

Thank you all very much

There is no number of days you can stay in the US to guarantee you won't be found to have abandoned residence on your next trip. There is no length of trip that will guaranteed you won't be found to have abandoned residence either.

Abandonment of residence is based on many factors, not only length of the absence. They also look at your ties to the US, e.g. whether you maintained access to a home in the US, whether your family remained in the US, whether you filed US taxes, whether you maintained accounts in the US, whether your reason for being abroad had a definite end date instead of being open-ended, etc.

Applying for a Re-entry Permit may help. You file I-131 to apply for this while you are in the US, and you also need to attend the biometrics appointment in the US, but you don't need to wait in the US while it is pending; you can choose to have it delivered to a US consulate abroad for pickup after it is approved. Having a Re-entry Permit, and re-entering during the validity period of the Re-entry Permit (they are issued for 2 years) will prevent you from being found to have abandoned residence for reasons of the length of absence, and serves as an indication of your intent to maintain residence (although you could still potentially be found to have abandoned residence due to the other factors).

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

Elle2018,

I just wanted to clarify that ONLY AN IMMIGRATION JUDGE may make a finding of abandonment of Legal Permanent Resident status; regardless of what any CBP officer ever says to you. Educate yourself on the subject. You will find this document very informative. https://cliniclegal.org/sites/defaul...R%20Status.pdf

If a CBP officer tells you to fill out an sign form I-407, you decline politely and ask for a Notice to Appear (NTA).

All the best,

USCFFS

[elle2018]

Thank you both so much for your reply.
It did clear things up a bit. I have continued to do some research and found out, that this "abandoment" is not a plain and simple black and white process. There is a very large grey area in there. And it seems that cases, which are almost exactly the same have been decided upon completly different.

I have decided to return to the USA and file for dual citizenship. I think that this will give me the most flexibility to leave the US and also return without any questions. Already started the process here and have to wait for approval before I can apply in the US.